Supportive care helps you manage the symptoms of your MDS. Its goals are to increase blood counts, treat infections, and treat iron overload. Supportive care is often the best treatment for lower-risk MDS patients. A patient with lower-risk MDS:

May or may not need blood transfusions

Has a low or intermediate-1 risk IPSS score which is between 0 and 1.0

Usually does not have an excess of blasts in the bone marrow

Supportive care can increase blood counts. It can also reduce problems caused by infection and too much bleeding. This type of care includes the use of:

Are clinical trials an option?

Scientists are always looking for new and better ways to treat MDS. They are conducting controlled clinical trials, also called research studies. The studies are often done at university medical research centers around the world. These studies:

Compare new treatments or new combinations of treatments with standard ones

Help scientists learn more about standard treatments

Test the safety and effectiveness of new treatments

If standard therapies have not improved your MDS, or if your MDS has returned after standard therapies, or even if you are not satisfied with how well standard therapies work, you may want to explore whether you may be eligible for a clinical trial.